The Blog

Exploration Of Thought

Thoughts on autonomy, self direction, digital business and life.

• Android & ASP.NET MVC

  Paired Android with ASP.NET MVC and Spark to build a REST/JSON backend instead of wrestling with WCF's REST implementation -- worked great.

  Donn Felker – August 19, 2009

• Auto-Creating Your DB with Active Record

  How to auto-create a SQL Express database and schema on the fly with Castle ActiveRecord, so new devs can spin up a working DB with zero setup pain.

  Donn Felker – July 13, 2009

• ASP.NET MVC – Windsor Container Controller Factory

  How to build a custom ASP.NET MVC ControllerFactory backed by the Windsor container, so controllers can take dependencies via constructor injection.

  Donn Felker – July 10, 2009

• Unit Testing you Container Dependencies

  A unit test that catches missing Castle Windsor container registrations before runtime, by walking every handler and forcing resolution.

  Donn Felker – July 10, 2009

• A True Life Git Story …

  A week with zero WiFi in rural South Carolina turned me into a Git convert -- full branch, merge, and revert history with no connection required.

  Donn Felker – July 7, 2009

• Running Your Android App on a Device

  The Android dev guide's device-testing steps left out one thing: switching Eclipse's Run Configuration target to manual to get the device chooser.

  Donn Felker – June 29, 2009

• Could Not Import Contacts Into G1 From CSV…

  Google Contacts CSV import silently dumps phone numbers into Notes unless you fill the Section 1/2 Description fields with 'Personal'.

  Donn Felker – June 26, 2009

• Twin Cities Pragmatic/ALT.NET Beer Tomorrow

  Reminder: the Twin Cities Pragmatic Beer meetup, also known as Twin Cities ALT.NET Beers, happens tomorrow at the Herkimer in Uptown Minneapolis.

  Donn Felker – June 24, 2009

• LINQ: Single() vs First()

  First() and Single() look similar but throw under different conditions. A quick reference table for when each LINQ method fails or succeeds.

  Donn Felker – June 23, 2009

• LINQ: Any() vs. Count()

  Checking Count() > 0 enumerates your whole LINQ sequence. Any() stops at the first match. Here's why that swap matters for performance.

  Donn Felker – June 22, 2009

• Beginning Google Android Development

  First steps into Android development with Eclipse, the ADT plugin, and the emulator, plus early plans to experiment with the accelerometer.

  Donn Felker – June 19, 2009

• Hangin’ in the Lounge

  Why I picked The Lounge as my blog's exclusive ad network over the big clunky banners I'd used before, and how the deal came together.

  Donn Felker – June 19, 2009